Apparatus and method for manufacturing insulated conductive wires

ABSTRACT

The apparatus comprises a wire-drawing machine driven in combination with an enamelling machine and an intermediate nonslip capstan. The wire-drawing machine and the enamelling machine are respectively driven by individual, independent motor means. The wire issuing from the last die of the wire-drawing machine is driven directly by the non-slip capstan into the enamelling machine. By this method of combining the wire-drawing and enamelling machines either machine can be stopped for adjustment or replacement of parts without stopping the other.

United States Patent [1 1 Goyffon APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING INSULATED CONDUCTIVE WIRES [75] Inventor: Roland Abel Goyffon, Macon,

France [73] Assignee: Manufacture De Fils Isoles Taurus (Maiit), Macon, France [22] Filed: Nov. 9, 1971 [21] App]. No.: 197,045

7 Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuatiominpart of Ser. No. 785,920, Dec. 23,

1968, abandoned.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 28, 1967 France 67134091 [52] U.S. Cl. 72/46, 29/527.4 [51] Int. Cl. B2lc l/00, 823p 25/00 [58] Field of Search 29/527.4; 72/46,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,480,711 8/1949 Calton 29/527.4

[4 Dec. 18, 1973 2,861,393 11/1958 Whitehurst at al. 118/33 3,181,326 5/1965 Hollingswort'h et al.. 72/46 3,273,987 9/1966 Marzoochi et a] 1 18/33 3,284,892 11/1966 Wade 29/527.4 3,391,450 7/1968 Bauer 29/527.4

Primary Examiner--Char1es W. Lanham Assistant ExaminerE. M. Combs Attorney-Fleit, Gipple, Jacobson & Miller, Jr.

chines either machine can be stopped for adjustment or replacement of parts without stopping the other.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 1 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING INSULATED CONDUCTIVE WIRES The present application is a continuation-in-part of my co-pending application No. 785,920, filed Dec. 23, 1968, now abandoned.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for manufacturing insulated conductive wires. More particularly, it relates to an improved method of operating a wire-drawing machine and an enamelling machine in combination and to an improved installation comprising these two machines.

In previous insulated wire manufacturing installations, especially those with high production rates, rigid synchronisation between the wire-drawing machine and the enamelling machine has been necessary. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,181,326 a dual capstan is .used to provide an operative connection between the wire-drawing means and the wire transport means for pulling the wire through the enamelling oven. By supplying the wire to the enamelling machine directly from a wire-drawing machine it was possible to achieve higher production speeds than by supply from storage spools. However, wire-drawing machines involve slippage on the drawing cones resulting in wear on the cones which has to be periodically rectified. Such rectification causes a reduction in the diameter of the cones and thus has hitherto necessitated rectification of the capstan of the enamelling machine in order to maintain the same linear speed through the enamelling machine. A furtherdisadvantage is that through rectification of the wire-drawing capstan, the wire is no longer aligned with respect to the enamel applicator. Consequently it becomes necessary to adjust the position of the applicator which adjustment is limited by the width of the tubes of the bakingoven. Hence stoppage of the whole installation for regulation and even expensive replacement is then required, for example of the dual capstan in the apparatus of the above-mentioned patent.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an installation which overcomes the aforesaid disadvantages.

It is another object to provide an improved method of operating an enamelling machine and a wire-drawing machine in combination.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the description which follows.

According. to the invention the wire-drawing machine and the enamelling machine are driven by individual motor means and are operated in combination with an intermediate non-slip capstan to drive the wire issuing. from the last die of the wire-drawing machine directly into the enamelling. machine.

The invention will be better understood from the following complementary description, and the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. lshows schematically the elements of one embodiment of an installation established according to the invention;

FIG. 2 a part of FIG. 1 arranged according to a modification. of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows the main feature of the embodiment of FIGS. land 2 in detail; and

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the feature of FIG. 3.

With regard first of all to the enamelling machine use in the installation according to this invention, for maximum production rate and high profit-earning especially, this should be constituted by a high speed enam elling machine.

In such an installation, it is the enamelling machine that governs the overall speed.

Advantageously, the enamelling machine used is of the type which comprises the improvements described in US. Pat. No. 3,412,709 and French Pat. No. 1,496,780 of Aug. 22, 1966 and corresponding US. Pat. application 660,256 filed Aug. 14, 1967 (now abandoned).

Such an enamelling machine, which has been shown schematically at 1 and which is driven by a motor M, permits enamelling speeds to be obtained of the order of 700 meters/minute and higher for a wire of 10/100 millimeters (0.1 mm) diameter (AWG 38).

In considering the wire-drawing machine forming part of this apparatus, a wire-drawing machine with slipping is used and is designated generally by 2 in FIG. 11.

In this wire-drawing machine, the drive preferably takes place through the intermediary of a speed varier 3, permitting the machine to be started from a speed of zero.

In the embodiment shown, this speed varier drives wire-drawing cones 4a, 4b and 5a, 5b disposed in a common vertical plane but offset two by two, as shown, in order to avoid any non-rectilinear reversing of the direction of the wire. Two die-holders 6 and 7 are disposed respectively between the cones 4a and 417 on the one hand, and 5a and 5b on the other hand. With regard to the cones 4a and 4b, the last steps have been designated respectively 15a and 15b. Each die-holder comprises a series of dies, not represented individually, but designated generally respectively by 60 and 7a. The drive of the pair of cones 4a and 4b takes place via a belt 8 which acts on the shaft of the cone 40 whose rotation is transmitted to the shaft of the cone 4b by means of a belt 9. It is by means of a belt 10 that the movement of the shafts of the cones 4a and 4b is transmitted to the shaft of the cone 5b, then from this latter shaft to the shaft of the cone 5a via a belt 11.

The diameters of the pulleys, carried by the various belt-driven shafts which have just been described are chosen, as is visible in FIG. 1, so as to provide the speed reductions or increases necessary for obtaining the speeds of rotation required for the various wiredrawing cones.

The wire-drawing machine has as many cone and dieholder assemblies, like, for example, the one that has just been described, as the enamelling machine has enamelling lines.

According to the invention, the enamelling machine and the wire-drawing machine, which are driven by individual motor means, are combined so as to drive the wire F issuing from the last die of the wire-drawing ma chine by means of an intermediate non-slip capstan, which enables the two machines-- on the one hand the wiredrawing machine, and on the other hand the enamelling machine to be free of any rigid mechanical connection or any synchronization system, and hence to remain independent.

From the point of practical embodiment, it is possible either to add, as shown in FIG. 1, at the output of the wire-drawing machine, a finishing die 12, and then to make the wire F pass onto a capstan upstream of the enamelling machine schematically shown at 13 and driven by the motor M,

or not to make use of the last step b of the cone 4b of the wire-drawing machine, as shown in FIG. 2. Where this step has been eliminated, to liberate the last die of the series 6a; the wire consequently passes from the last step 15a of the cone 4a through the last die of the series 6a, onto the capstan 13 upstream of the enamelling machine, after having left the wire-drawing machine, for example through a hole 16.

In order to preserve a margin for the slipping of the wire on the wire-drawing machine, it is arranged that v the speed of the wire-drawing machine is always higher than the corresponding speed of the enamelling machine whose value is chosen so as to obtain the best possible setting of the enamel. The wire-drawing machine is thus used as a sort of conventional reel, the drawing force being nevertheless greater than what it normally is.

It is important to avoid any slipping on the capstan to the enamelling machine. To accomplish this, the wire to be enamelled can be wound around the capstan several times,if desired by means ofa guide roller as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, or a bearing roller holding the wire against the capstan can be used as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 3.

The capstan shown in FIG. 3, denoted generally by 13 receives the wire F from the wire-drawing machine 2, possibly via a guide roller 20. The wire F is applied against the cylindrical surface 21 of the capstan by means ofa bearing roller 22 having its axle 23 parallel to the shaft 24 of the capstan 13. The axle 23 is hinged on a pivot 23a, a spring 25 urging it radially towards the capstan 13. The wire F is thus gripped between the cylindrical surface 26 of the bearing roller 22 and the cylindrical surface 21 of the capstan l3 sufficiently to avoid slippage and is thus fed therefrom at a constant speed V to the enamelling machine 1.

v In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the wire F coming from the wire-drawing machine 2 is fed over a guide roller to the capstan 13. The guide roller 20 is adapted to receive the wire back from the capstan and redirect it round the capstan several times so that slippage on the capstan is eliminated. From its last turn on the capstan the wire is fed to the enamelling machine At the output of the enamelling machine, the wire F is directed, for example by means ofa capstan 14 which can be driven by the motor M, towards a take-up unit, which can advantageously be of the type disclosed in the French Pat. No. 1,482,160 of Apr. 13, 1966. The diameter of the capstan is conveniently such as to provide three revolutions for the passage of l metre of wire.

The unit disclosed in French Pat. No. 1,482,160 comprises a rotatable support adapted to carry a bobbin in a winding-up position as well as at least one empty bobbin; means for automatically moving the said support to bring the empty bobbin into the winding-up position when the first bobbin is full; means for controlling and adjusting the tension of the filament being wound; and means for automatically severing the filament as a result of the automatic movement of the support in combination with means for uniformly distributing the filament over the whole width of the bobbin and for placing it on the empty bobbin. By virtue of the automatic changing of the bobbins made possible by the unit thus provided, it is possible to maintain production speeds higher than those previously practicable without the need to step or slow down the enamelling machine for each change.

The apparatus according to this invention permits the speed of rotation of the wire-drawing machine to be increased after a rectification of the wire-drawing capstans, which is necessary to be able to preserve a given rate of slipping whatever be the decrease of the diameters of the wire-drawing capstans, the enamelling speed being fixed. In this connection it is recalled that, although in a wire-drawing machine with slipping the wear is proportional to the slipping so that it is consequently advantageous to beable to reduce this slipping, the machining tolerances of the wire-drawing dies and their wear do not permit this slipping to be reduced to zero.

The setting up of the apparatus thus established that is to say the putting in place of the wire is very easy due to the driving of the wire through the wiredrawing machine and the enamelling machine by independent means. Indeed, the wire-drawing machine, the enamelling machine does not need to be in operation, and, conversely, to set up the enamelling machine, the wire-drawing machine can constantly remain in operation.

In this connection, it is recalled that for the setting up of the wire-drawing machine, the speed varier is adjusted so that its speed permits the wire to pass easily from one cone step to another; the machine is stopped only for the time necessary to pass the wire through each corresponding die.

To place the installation in operation, when the wiredrawing machine has been completely set up, the wire is drawn, still at a relatively low speed, as far as the enamelling machine, exactly as if it were a matter of threading a wire drawn from a normal reel. It is simply necessary to ensure that the speed of threading always remains lower than the maximum adjustable speed of the wire-drawing machine.

Once the setting up of the enamelling machine has been finished, it is sufficient to adjust the speed of the wire-drawing machine to a value slightly higher than the value of the final speed of enamelling, and then the enamelling machine is again adjusted to said required final speed. These various adjustments are rendered possible by using tachometers not represented in the drawings.

To illustrate the very considerable improvement in output which can be achieved by means of the method and installation according to the invention, the Table below gives the production speeds obtained in a prior art machine and the speeds obtained by the invention for several sizes of enamelled wire.

Final Wire Prior Art Size Speed Invention Speed AWG 42 200 m/min 1,100 m/min (6/100 min) AWG 40 I00 rn/min 900 m/min (8/l00 min) AW 38 931 1 9mm. (l0/l00 min) w The apparatus according to the invention, thus con stituted, has numerous advantages, in particular,

that of being of great simplicity of realization, of a relatively small size and of great flexibility of use,

while permitting the immediate use of any already existing enamelling machine, and also Permitting the use of the enamelling machine independently of the wire-drawing machine, for example from a spool.

The apparatus also has advantages in permitting the use,after the provision of a take up device(and, should the occasion arise, of an output capstan) of the wiredrawing machine independently of the enamelling machine, and of not necessitating the rectification of the capstan of the enamelling machine. This capstan has to operate without slipping (only thecapstans of the wiredrawing machine need be subject to slippage). This is possible due to the the independence of the drives and of the speeds of the enamelling machine and of the wire-drawing machine.

I claim:

1, Installation for manufacturing insulated conductive wires, comprising,

a wire-drawing machine comprising a plurality of dies and first driving means for driving a wire through said plurality of dies,

in combination with an enamelling machine comprising second driving means, including a driving capstan, for driving the wire through the enamelling machine after said wire has passed through the wire-driving machine, said second driving means being independent from and without mechanical connection to said first driving means, said driving capstan including non-slipping means and driving directly the wire issuing from the last die of said plurality of dies of said wire-drawing machine, and means for maintaining the speed of said driving capstan at a preset value even following adjustment or rectification of said first driving means.

2. installation according to claim 1, wherein said last die consists of a finishing die, said finishing die being disposed at the output of the wire-drawing machine.

3. installation according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of dies of the wire-drawing machine form a last series of dies, and the driving means of the wire-drawing machine comprise two driving cones disposed respectively on opposite sides of said last series of dies for drawing the wire through said last series of dies, one of said cones having a series of steps corresponding respectively to each of the dies of said last series, said one cone being disposed so that its last step is upstream, with respect to the advance of the wire, of the last die of said last series, and the other of said cones having a series of steps corresponding respectively to each of the dies of said last series except said last die, the wire issuing from said last die passing directly onto said driving capstan of the enamelling machine.

4. Installation according to claim 1, wherein said non-slipping means comprises means for winding the wire more than once around the driving capstan.

5. Installation according to claim 1, wherein said non-slipping means comprises a bearing roller.

6. A continuous high-speed method of manufacturing insulated conductive wire comprising:

pulling wire of a first gauge from a supply spool at a relatively low linearspeed, drawing down the wire in a wire-drawing machine with dies and with slipping over a series of stepped driving rollers,

driving the wire as it emerges at a second gauge and at a high linear speed from the wire-drawing machine by a non-slip capstan driven independently of and without operative connection to the wiredrawing machine at a constant. high speed and directly into a high speed enamelling machine,

without necessitating modification of the enamelling operation on rectification of the wire-drawingmachine rollers due to wear arising from said slipping,

subjecting the wire to a high-speed enamelling operation in the enamelling machine,

and collecting the enamelled wire in a take-up unit at said high linear speed. 

1. Installation for manufacturing insulated conductive wires, comprising, a wire-drawing machine comprising a plurality of dies and first driving means for driving a wire through said plurality of dies, in combination with an enamelling machine comprising second driving means, including a driving capstan, for driving the wire through the enamelling machine after said wire has passed through the wire-driving machine, said second driving means being independent from and without mechanical connection to said first driving means, said Driving capstan including nonslipping means and driving directly the wire issuing from the last die of said plurality of dies of said wire-drawing machine, and means for maintaining the speed of said driving capstan at a preset value even following adjustment or rectification of said first driving means.
 2. Installation according to claim 1, wherein said last die consists of a finishing die, said finishing die being disposed at the output of the wire-drawing machine.
 3. Installation according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of dies of the wire-drawing machine form a last series of dies, and the driving means of the wire-drawing machine comprise two driving cones disposed respectively on opposite sides of said last series of dies for drawing the wire through said last series of dies, one of said cones having a series of steps corresponding respectively to each of the dies of said last series, said one cone being disposed so that its last step is upstream, with respect to the advance of the wire, of the last die of said last series, and the other of said cones having a series of steps corresponding respectively to each of the dies of said last series except said last die, the wire issuing from said last die passing directly onto said driving capstan of the enamelling machine.
 4. Installation according to claim 1, wherein said non-slipping means comprises means for winding the wire more than once around the driving capstan.
 5. Installation according to claim 1, wherein said non-slipping means comprises a bearing roller.
 6. A continuous high-speed method of manufacturing insulated conductive wire comprising: pulling wire of a first gauge from a supply spool at a relatively low linear speed, drawing down the wire in a wire-drawing machine with dies and with slipping over a series of stepped driving rollers, driving the wire as it emerges at a second gauge and at a high linear speed from the wire-drawing machine by a non-slip capstan driven independently of and without operative connection to the wire-drawing machine at a constant high speed and directly into a high speed enamelling machine, without necessitating modification of the enamelling operation on rectification of the wire-drawing machine rollers due to wear arising from said slipping, subjecting the wire to a high-speed enamelling operation in the enamelling machine, and collecting the enamelled wire in a take-up unit at said high linear speed. 